Interview: Hikaru Midorikawa
Interview with Hikaru Midorikawa by Jonathan Despres. Go to the Interviews. Tell us about yourself. What is your background, and what current projects are you involved in? I am Hikaru Midorikawa. My specialty is ICT. The purpose of our project are followings. 1) Raise the awareness of cryonics in Japan. 2) Remove prejudice to cryonics in Japan. For the purpose, ten years ago, we founded Japanese Cryonics Association. What are your goals for the next decade? Same as 1) and 2) above When do you think will we achieve real life extension? Second half of 21st century Your vision of the future? A sustainable society comes true. Jobs of people are as follows. 1)Pioneer a space frontier. 2)Create art. Do you believe in Cryonics and when will it suceed? Yes, second half of 21st cnetury. What kind of jobs you did when you were younger and what is the important things you learned about it? Made ICT systems to make good for company or society. I learned there are no limit in the ability of mankind. Why isn't the science of cryonics progressing at a rate commensurate to other sciences? I think there is no difference. Do you believe in a God? Yes. What extropian values do you prefer the most and why? Mind uploading, I think it contribute to achieving immortality. What do you think we should do to advance the quality of life of everybody? Make a sustainable society. Do you see a future for biology? (considering bionics, ai, mind uploading, robotics) I do not see well. The man or the woman that is a model for you? Why? Both, I'd like to experience both of man and woman. The stuff you are pround in your life? I achieved several important projects for the society. The stuff you are not proud in your life? I could not complete several projects that I started. What would you love to accomplish before you die? Contribute to making a sustainable society as much as possible. Make own biography. What are the languages of the universe for you? Mathematics Is competition good in cryonics? Yes. Imagine yourself as a space navigator and you discover a smaller, less advanced civilization on a planet, what would you do with them? I don’t do anything. Let the civilization grow by itself. What do you think biological simulations will do to cryonics, aging or nanotechnology? Advances in biology and nanotechnology (chemistry, microfabrication etc.) are mutually beneficial for one another. Molecular biology has been a great inspiration for many chemists for it unveiled intra-cellular machinery in the words of molecular self-assembly and provided striking ideas in the field of supramolecular chemistry. In the same way, biomimetic chemistry has been a source of brilliant tools for monitoring and manipulating living organisms at molecular level. Those include fluorescent probes, drugs, functional polymers, nanocapsules … and so on. When we come to the day where we speak about cellular growth and division in the words of chemistry (molecular interactions) and physics (modeling of the whole system), I believe, halting and activating cellular processes and complete solidification of the entire body comes to within the scope of reality. What kind of mathematics is used in aging, cryonics & nanomedicine? Math is everywhere. Modeling and computer simulations are most frequent contribution of math to the application fields. The simulations, as far as I can think of, are crystal formation in cells or tissues, molecular interactions of cryoprotectant and other drugs in the cellular environment, something like that. What will be the best (central), most important tool in molecular manufacturing? And why ? Genetic Engineering or Protein Engineering; There is a bunch of functional proteins or nanomachines, if you name it, working cooperatively in the cellular environment. Just producing proteins couldn’t be easier (but limited to soluble ones), you just put amino acid polymer in water and leave it for a while. Most of them folds into their unique configuration and become functional. The problem is……we don’t know how to design amino acid sequence (or DNA) yet. If all of the intra-molecular interactions and hydrophobic effect (the effect from surrounding water molecules) were fully understood, producing hitherto THE most sophisticated nanomachines on the planet would become feasible. Again, math and physics play key a role. Which path should we take for immortalism, nanomedicine or biogerontology or something else? All of them. What first attracted you to the idea of physical immortality? I found a life to be wonderful. What a company can do to become sucessful in the life extension business? Make an attractive investment plan. How handy an indefinite lifespan would be? It depends on several conditions of indefinite lifespan. What would be the jobs of the future? 1)Pioneer a space frontier. 2)Create art. (3)Software Engineer (for creation of virtual environment and brain enhancement) (4)Robot Engineer (for creation of interface with intra- and extraterrestrial environment) (5)Politicians and Bureaucrats (We always need them somehow) What do you think of the Paradise Engineering idea? One of the main incentives of Human Genome Project was to address genetic disease susceptibility loci and possible pathology of the diseases for cancer, Alzheimer, schizophrenia, autism and so on. From what they found out, generally, mammalian development and metabolism are so complex that we can’t understand how things go in our body, solely from genetic information. Modification of human genome is pretty unpredictable and unstable so far. I think there’re plenty of things we have to know before we rush into the ethical controversy. What do you think about the singularity, when will it happen? Maybe it will happen during this century. What's the future of "information technology" for you? A fusion of brains and all knowledge in the world What would be the great inventions/ideas of the future? Mind uploading What should we do to improve/clean our ecology? Behave with the four system conditions of the Natural Step. 1. concentrations of substances extracted from the Earth's crust, 2. concentrations of substances produced by society, 3. degradation by physical means and, in that society... 4. people are not subject to conditions that systematically undermine their capacity to meet their needs. (See http://www.naturalstep.ca/understanding-sustainability.html) Do you think molecular manufacturing (or anything else) could clean up pollution on earth and in space? If so, when and how? It can do the part of work to clean up, not all of work. Your best movie ever is? "Amadeus" Your religion is? Pantheism Your political view? Green Party Your web page is? http://www.cryonics.jp/index-e.html Your contact information? mid_hikaru@yahoo.co.jp Your favorite song, and your favorite style of music are ? Mass h-moll BWV232 written by J.S.Bach Do you know a good person that I should interview? No. Category:Interview